AfterDawn: News

SEGA and Macrovision ink a deal

Despite the fact that games are constantly being cracked, and the un-protected versions then distributed illegaly, game producers still invest on copy protection technology. Macrovision is the long time industry leader, best known for the DVD copy protection scheme. SEGA, despite the fact that they gave up in the console production, is still one of the leading game content producers and developers. In the future SEGA Europe relies on Macrovision copy protections, the SafeDisc.

SafeDisc® Encryption Technology To Appear On SEGA’s Forthcoming PC Titles

Macrovision® Corporation (Nasdaq: MVSN), the leader in copy protection, has signed an agreement with SEGA Europe under which the software publishing giant will use Macrovision’s SafeDisc® advanced security solution on its forthcoming PC CD-ROM titles.



SafeDisc is the leading PC game protection solution available to interactive entertainment publishers, offering multi-level encryption which can be efficiently integrated by the software developer deep within the code of a game without affecting the game’s performance. These layers ensure that the robust security can remain intact far beyond standard copy protection schemes which simply ‘wrap’ each game in an encrypted ‘sleeve’.

“We had no hesitation in reaching this agreement with Macrovision,” says Mark Simmons, Head of Operations, SEGA Europe. “We need to feel confident that our PC games are secure and Macrovision’s SafeDisc solution offers unrivalled protection.”

“We are delighted that SEGA Europe has chosen Macrovision’s SafeDisc security solution within its forthcoming titles,” adds Martin Brooker, European Director of Sales, Macrovision. “We believe that our security is the most sophisticated and secure out there, we’re thrilled that SEGA Europe agrees.”

Source: Macrovision

Written by: Lasse Penttinen @ 12 Aug 2004 9:44

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• 17 comments

• neewbie

  Macrovision? CSS? Safedisc? who cares, people can always get ways to get rid of the encryption, copy them and back them up. simple!

  12.8.2004 23:07 #1

• Toiletman

  Actually, not so. It would seem that a type of disc security called StarForce 3 is causing some problems, but not many games use this protection.
  
  That's kind of wierd.

  13.8.2004 11:43 #2

• neewbie

  Really? is that on ps2 games? and which ones?

  13.8.2004 15:09 #3

• bridq

  Ha ha ha, safe disc! just use Alcohol 120 to back up games with that protection

  13.8.2004 16:11 #4

• hijacker

  SEGA SUCKS!!

  14.8.2004 06:37 #5

• neewbie

  i know safedisc is easy to crack thats what im saying, u can crack anything so can programs.

  14.8.2004 07:21 #6

• neewbie

  I agree sega is really crap, i dont know why they bother with making the games and platform.

  14.8.2004 07:23 #7

• Toiletman

  Actually StarForce 3 is only on computer games, as far as I know.... It was on Kill Switch for the PC, and that's probably the only game I've seen it on.
  

  Everyone is entitled to their own true opinion. Either respect that or don't.

  14.8.2004 10:05 #8

• DDRtist

  You have to note about the latest version of SafeDisc which could become a real problem for crackers wishing to crack out there, especially ones who just crack without playing the game at all.
  
  The latest version of SafeDisc comes with a new feature called SilentAlarm. This is a piece of code any developer can add anywhere into their game. The developer adds several copy-protection checkpoints into the final build of the game. If one part is cracked, then the next checkpoint causes the game to be pretty much unplayable. This means things like, a gun not being able to shoot, or an endless loop of an animation, and plenty of other things. What might make this difficult for a cracker is the fact that it has capability of hiding where the protection is (apparently).
  
  Today's games require release groups to test every single part of the game, which means play ALL of it, not just check if it starts without the CD or a copied disc.
  
  The last line says that they believe that their copy protection is the sophisticated. This SilentAlarm feature is about as sophisticated as it gets. And before that, it was nothing but a CD check. All release groups have programs that can remove that without the need of a cracker.
  
  As far as DVD encryption, I have no idea what they are talking about. The keys to decrypt were leaked and everyone is decrypting everything (DeCSS, DVD Decrypter). They still haven't done anything about it. It's like dummy copy protection, which is placed on every US DVD. The Chinese are cool and realize that protections get cracked and that region encoding is cracked (and uncool), which is why my Hong Kong DVDs are all regions and have no CSS protection.
  
  Always have to remember that copy protections are always going to be cracked. As far as SilentAlarm, it may even take months for a release group to crack, BUT IT WILL BE DONE. Those people are ALWAYS motivated.

  15.8.2004 19:11 #9

• Toiletman

  That sounds like a lot of work...
  
  And you know, release groups don't even gain any profit from cracking and releasing games, so there's chance they might just say, "Fuck it."
  

  Everyone is entitled to their own true opinion. Either respect that or don't.

  16.8.2004 09:07 #10

• sammorris

  StarForce 3 is absolutely deadly. When you istall games with it, it can do as much damage to your system as battlefield 1942 did. It can mean a complete reinstall of windows or worse - and that's without trying to crack it, reverse-engineer it or remove it from a game. it uses a fake CD-ROM driver to overwrite part of the ASPI without your permission.
  
  Illegal protection to stop illegal copying, what has the world come to???

  18.8.2004 03:02 #11

• Toiletman

  :O
  
  I installed KillSwitch... but at least my computer seems to be in working order. (which uses StarForce 3)
  

  Everyone is entitled to their own true opinion. Either respect that or don't.

  18.8.2004 08:24 #12

• sammorris

  Mine too, with Trackmania. How long for, we wonder???
  Though to tell the truth, it does start bitching occasionally and take over a minute to check the cd. Usually though, you can tell if its taking too long, and an eject and retry solves the issue. Shouldn't be necessary though, should it?

  24.8.2004 02:52 #13

• DDRtist

  sammorris: NOT AT ALL

  25.8.2004 04:02 #14

• sammorris

  Fortunately, it seems that this is one area that most people are agreed on. Though to be quite honest, I don't think Doom 3 provides as much aggravation, and that uses SF3 to the best of my recollection.

  25.8.2004 10:40 #15

• darren99

  The biggest flaw in all PC games that allows such easy copying is the hard drive, hard drives aren't protected in any way and where is the first place the game installs itself to? The best form of protection would be to keep the game on the disc like the consoles do (even that isn't 100% secure, but it does stop a few people who don't know how to crack the disc from using no=cd hacks available from various places).
  
  As for SilentAlarm, that's been around for years, I think it was the Codemasters who originally developed it back in 2000 and they've used it on a number of there games since. Theme Park World would revert to "Demo mode" if you tried to copy it, Harry Potter & The Philosophers/Sorcerers Stone would make it impossible to complete any of the spells (you'd always score just under the required amount, yet on the original you could easily get nearly 100% doing the same thing). Quite a number of the Worms games also use it.
  
  

  4.11.2006 21:44 #16

• ZippyDSM

  Ya know if they want to waste miloins on COpy Protection and not R&D on a game or even deving on a game fine as long as its nothing like Star force 3 or 7 thats fires DVD drives and crashes computers.
  
  Sega has drooped 80% in quality since 98.....sad...they only really have 1 game now adays and thats PSO...

  6.11.2006 04:53 #17